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Fans of locally brewed beer will likely pay higher prices, unless brewers can convince lawmakers to create new tax advantages for them, after a court threw out two tax breaks that have fueled rapid growth in beer production in New York State.

Erica Shea and Stephen Valand of Brooklyn Brew Shop demonstrate how to make your own beer! They're the authors of Brooklyn Brew Shop's Beer Making Book: 52 Seasonal Recipes for Small Batches.

Tim O'Neal, Boroughbees.com blogger, who does honey bee outreach and education through Added Value Farm, talks about the first annual New York City Honey Festival, which takes place Saturday on the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk; Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery, discusses the craft brew industry in New York City and its subculture. 

We asked our listeners recently what is the one thing you can't live without. One Takeaway listener, named Mike said, "I absolutely could not live without ice cold beer. God bless America!" Indeed, God bless America, where if you're a beer drinker like Mike, you might find the cost of your pint going up. Is that because of the rice in global food prices? Or an increased supply because of down in the dumps recession times?

In recent years, home beer tours have become more popular in New York City, as has the number of beer enthusiasts who have pushed their dining room tables aside to make space for yeast-fermenting carboys in their tiny living rooms.

New York is a city of specialists from foodies to academics, laborers to shopkeepers. Every Wednesday, Niche Market will take a peek inside a different specialty store and showcase the city's purists who have made an art out of selling one commodity.

President Obama, Sgt. James Crowley and Henry Louis Gates Jr. met for a long anticipated beer last night outside the Oval Office. The Takeaway covered reactions to this from bar-goers in Boston and now talks with Detroit News Reporter Charlie LeDuff about what people said in the bars in Detroit.

For The Takeaway's weekly wrap-up we talk about two stories that dominated the headlines all week—health care and beer. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sat down with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sergeant James Crowley for a beer at the White House to try and settle their differences. And a new health care deal got closer to passing through Congress this week, but it won’t happen before the recess as the president had hoped. Here to analyze the week’s events is The Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich, and Callie Crossley, media analyst at Harvard University and media critic for Meet The Press on WGBH Boston.

As President Obama and Vice President Biden welcomed Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr and police Sergeant James Crowley to the beer summit, people were joining them in spirit at bars across Boston. Radio Reporter Philip Martin was there to get a take on what people hoped the meeting would accomplish.

As the president prepares to host a kegger to smooth the feathers ruffled over the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, the nation's beer drinkers are paying close attention. The Takeaway's Femi Oke has hit the bars (for research, naturally) to find out whether conflict is best resolved over a beer. Then Brooklyn Brewery's Beer Master, Garrett Oliver, adds his thoughts on the president's beer selection: Budweiser, Blue Moon, and Red Stripe. No Brooklyn Lager, Mr. President?